Week 9 is halfway done. As in, we're a week into the second half of the semester. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Where did the first half go?!
Yesterday was my 7th or 8th 12-hour long Tuesday of the semester. 10-10 straight. And it's been amazing, but I guess it makes sense that the semester seems to be flying by when so much is going on that I barely have time to breathe. I'm absolutely loving it though. And I'm super excited about this weekend- I go down to Orange County and stay down there from Fri-Mon to work with 8 or 9 other Staff/Interns from the region to plan our Winter Conference! Can't wait!
So here's what I have to look forward to in the coming 2nd half:
Week 9- Weekly meeting tonight where students will share about how "Jesus Loves USC Kickoff Week" went. Friday I leave for Winter Conference planning til Monday morning.
Week 10- Trina{1} speaks at 727{2} for the first time ever!
Week 11- The last "normal" week of the year.
Week 12- Sun night-Wed is "Cross 09" when all staff in all the US cross cultures. LA staff will focus on reading Latino students and helping them start Destino{3}movements on different campuses.
Week 13- Sun-Wed is more Winter Conference planning, Wed-Fri is Regional Staff Conference, and Fri-Sun is Crossroads Conference! SOOO busy but SOOO fun! Regional Conference is our Semi-Annual staff family reunion where all the staff of the Pacific Southwest Region (CA, AZ, HI, Vegas) get together to talk about what God's doing everywhere, and get more training/vision from our regional directors. Crossroads Conference is a conference we put on for Juinors and Seniors in the region, where they get to hear talks and go to workshops about transitioning into life outside of college, with the focus of living missionally whether in the secular working world or in vocational ministry. It's SO good.
Week 14- Thanksgiving!
Week 15- Last week of the semester and Spring Planning.
YIKES!
I'm so excited but I can't believe it's going by so fast and with all that's coming up, the second half's gonna go even faster!
Footnotes:
{1}- Trina Litwin is on my staff team. She went to TCU for her undergrad and spent her first few years on staff in the Red River Region working at the regional office in Texas. She stayed there until she married Paul Litwin (a Bruin) and they both came out here and started at SC in the fall of my senior year. She's fantastic!
{2}- 727 is USC Cru's weekly meeting. It happens on Wednesday nights at 7:27pm (nuanced enough that one remembers it better than the frequent "is it at 7 or 730? i forget..." cliche. Anywhere from 70-170 students get together for a night of worship, fellowship, and teaching.
{3}- Destino is the branch of Campus Crusade for Christ's US Campus Ministry that focuses on reaching the Latino community. They recognize that Latino students often face different cultural barriers when it comes to dealing with faith and spirituality, and so Destino serves to meet Latinos where they are and bring Christ to them in a contextualized way.
